Thunderbolt 3 SSD external drives and HUBs

[olyduck]

I have a 2018 MBP with i5 and 8g of memory (with Thunderbolt 3 ports). My photos collection has grown to the point where I need to move it to an external drive and and am considering a Thunderbolt 3 SSD NvME. I've read a number of online reviews where some brands (perhaps more than others) have a tendency to spontaneously disconnect and then perhaps not be recognized by the Mac, hence requiring disconnect and reconnect.

Does anyone have some advice about brands to look for (or avoid) for reliability and speed? It would be a bonus to also hear opinions about reliable Thunderbolt 3 hubs, which also seem to vary quite a bit in quality and reliability.

Thanks,
Olyduck

 

[chscag]

Why do you think that you need a Thunderbolt 3 drive to store photos? Folks use Thunderbolt 3 drives (which are currently expensive) for their speed. However, there are other drives that provide good speed and a lot less expensive.

Such as the current Samsung T5 and T7 drives. You can look up the specs for both of those drives on the Samsung site.

 

[olyduck]

Thanks for the perspective. I currently have my photos on an old 1 tb Seagate HDD external drive and the photos are so slow to load, hence my desire for more speed. Perhaps just a USB-C SSD would make a noticeable difference.

 

[jocarot]

With the Imac I use an akitio thunder quad mini with 4 1 TB ssd and works great for photos, the backup of the akitio is with a 8 TB G Drive USB C. I can access all my photos and videos instantly.